Death is a Gift
by Bobby Rae
Summary: Death can be merciful. Death holds many mysteries, the Joker thinks he knows all of the secrets behind death, but now he meets someone who knows Death personally. Joker/OC


A/N- this is post DK, when the Joker is admitted to the Mental Ward

A/N- this is post DK, when the Joker is admitted to the Mental Ward.

The two men in white led the Joker down the off-white hallway. The Joker wasn't in his usual attire, this time he was in the asylum's orange uniform. They didn't dare try to take off his war-paint, he nearly bit the nurse's nose off when they tried.

The Joker's escort stopped at an iron-clad door, inside there was a girl, who was standing on a short stool to peak out the small window. The quiet girl had a buzz-cut, doing of the asylum, the Joker was sure. She didn't even acknowledge them as one of the men in white opened the door.

"Lets see how long you last with _her_ as your roommate, clown-man," said the man who opened the door with a smirk. "No one has lasted more than a month with her."

"Oh really?" the Joker licked his lips as the men in white took off his handcuffs and shoved him into the room.

He could hear their laughter as they locked him in and walked away. _They were going to be the first to go when he blows up this place_. The Joker sighed, licked the corner of his mouth, and sat on the one made bed in the room, the other was still unmade from this morning, he supposed.

"So why are you, ah, in here, kid?" he asked after an uncomfortable silence, well, as silent as you could get in a mental ward with all the crazies moaning and screaming in the background.

The girl just looked at him from the corner of her eye, and the tiniest of smiles crept in the corner of her dainty mouth.

The kid looked too fragile to be in the same room as him, the joker thought. Her orange uniform was tiny, but it was very loose on her.

"I like you're smile, I haven't seen a real smile in a long time." She said, so quietly that he almost didn't hear her.

"You didn't answer my question, kid." He looked into her grey eyes, trying to figure out if she was afraid of him. She wasn't.

"Are you in here because of that, the aids, Mark and Bill, don't like it when I smile."

"That's a part of it." He chewed on some of the scar tissue in the sides of his mouth.

"Oh," her face stayed neutral. He also noticed that her voice barely changed as well, almost monotone, but it reminded him of bells, he didn't know why.

"Are you going to answer my question?"

"What question?"

"Why are you in here? A pretty face like you shouldn't be here."

She was pretty, she looked like she would fit in the crowd at the party that the Wayne man was hosting a few weeks back, that was if she had hair that is. She was the first woman (not seen on a billboard for some hospital) that he had seen with almost no hair. From her anglular brown eyebrows, he knew that she was a brunette. She had a dainty nose and normal cheekbones, heck, she looked _healthy_, very unlike the rest of the people here. Even the aids had bags under their eyes. She looked well rested and was completely in her element here.

_Interesting…_

"Oh, I see Death." She said it as if it were like if they were good aquaintences, and if it were completely _normal_.

She was anything but normal. And the Joker knew this, this was going to be an interesting stay…

"You got a name kid?"

"Keturah. And you?" she looked back out the window.

"The Joker." At this she looked back at him.

"Is that you're real name or the name for your smile?" she raised one of her delicate, pointy eyebrows. He smiled sheepishly.

"That's the first time someone –uh- actually asked me that." It was true, not even in the interrogation tank did the cops ask him for his real name, they only asked for his name, and he gave it to them. The Joker was his name after the scars. Keturah was the first person to _specifically_ ask for his name.

"You don't need to tell me, I can see that you're not going to be here for long anyway." She sighed, her face going back to its neutral state.

"How do you know that? You never know, we may be stuck here _forever_." He waved his arms in a semi circle above him. Like in a performance.

"You've brought Death with you." She looked at the door this time, smiling. The joker followed her gaze, nothing was there.

A/N- so what do you think? Love it? Hate it? So so? Let me know!


End file.
